Adaptec aic79xx driver status

Adaptec aic79xx driver status

[Andrea Carpani]

As of linux 2.6.8.1 the aic79xx driver included is version 1.3.11 which 
dates back to July 11, 2003.

On my Tyan B2881 the used scsi controller has a lot of problems: as soon 
as I try to transfer some data I get a frozen scsi subsystem and a dump 
in the syslog messages.

I hope to be able to solve these problems by using the new driver found 
at http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/SRC/

My question is: why isn't the new version included in the main tree?

Thanks.

-- 

.a.c.
Andrea Carpani
<andrea.carpani@criticalpath.net>

Re: Adaptec aic79xx driver status

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2004 at 02:52:49PM +0200, Andrea Carpani wrote:
> As of linux 2.6.8.1 the aic79xx driver included is version 1.3.11 which 
> dates back to July 11, 2003.
> 
> On my Tyan B2881 the used scsi controller has a lot of problems: as soon 
> as I try to transfer some data I get a frozen scsi subsystem and a dump 
> in the syslog messages.
> 
> I hope to be able to solve these problems by using the new driver found 
> at http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/SRC/
> 
> My question is: why isn't the new version included in the main tree?

Because it's broken in various ways.  We're working with Adaptec to get
the fixes merged but not the bogus parts.  But as Justin didn't cooperate
the new engineer in his position has a hard time to untangle the mess, so
it'll take a while.

Re: Adaptec aic79xx driver status

[Andrea Carpani]

Christoph Hellwig wrote:

> Because it's broken in various ways.  We're working with Adaptec to get
> the fixes merged but not the bogus parts.  But as Justin didn't cooperate
> the new engineer in his position has a hard time to untangle the mess, so
> it'll take a while.

I'm trying it right now and it looks as if the freeze errors are gone.
What do you mean by "broken in various ways"? Would it be unwise to use 
it in a production environment?

Thanks.

-- 

.a.c.
Andrea Carpani
<andrea.carpani@criticalpath.net>

Re: Adaptec aic79xx driver status

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2004 at 03:34:43PM +0200, Andrea Carpani wrote:
> Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> 
> > Because it's broken in various ways.  We're working with Adaptec to get
> > the fixes merged but not the bogus parts.  But as Justin didn't cooperate
> > the new engineer in his position has a hard time to untangle the mess, so
> > it'll take a while.
> 
> I'm trying it right now and it looks as if the freeze errors are gone.
> What do you mean by "broken in various ways"? Would it be unwise to use 
> it in a production environment?

we had problem reports for various cards, and lots of problems with error
handling during load and unload.  If it properly loads and unloads for you
and the kernel driver doesn't work just use it.  We hope to have a more
update driver in 2.6.10.